Theodorakis, Mikis (1925– )

Greek composer. He has produced a wide variety of musical compositions, including songs, oratorios, chamber music, ballets, and symphonic works. He also produced film scores, most notably for Zorba The Greek (1964), which made him internationally famous, as well as for Costas Gavras' Z (1969) and Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973). He also became known for his vocal left-wing politics.

In 1959 his ballet Antigone was performed at Covent Garden. His popularity was already growing in the 1960s, before Zorba the Greek, when he composed music for the film Phaedra (1962), starring Melina Mercouri, and Elektra (1962), starring Irena Papas.

He was member of parliament 1964–67 for the leftist EDA party. In 1967 he was imprisoned during a military coup and in 1970 he was exiled. He returned to Greece in 1974. During the 1980s he became member of parliament once again, but resigned in 1992.

In 1986 he released Canto General, which was based on the poems of the Nobel laureate Odysseas Elitis. In 1992 he composed the Canto Olympico for the Olympic Games in Barcelona, and his opera Hlektra premiered in 1995. He also composed an opera, Lysistrath, for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Theodorakis detailed his prison experiences in his book Journals Of Resistance (1973).